Photo: Patricia Goudvis
The Mutual Support Group (GAM) has previously posted on social media: “What independence if we are killed and disappeared? Women and men of the #GAM screamed as they interrupted the military parade of September 15, 1986.”
The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanied that GAM protest 40 years ago today on September 15, Guatemalan Independence Day.
The Mutual Support Group was created in 1984 to bring together the families of people illegally detained and forcibly disappeared in Guatemala during the Internal Armed Conflict that lasted from 1960 to 1996.
GAM became the first organization to publicly condemn the State for the arrests and disappearances, which totaled 45,000 people, according to the Commission for Historical Clarification, including 5,000 children.
GAM notes: “Due to threats, the group met weekly in the house of Peace Brigades International and on Fridays marches and demonstrations were held in front of the Public Ministry, near the National Palace. They demanded the return of their loved ones and attracted the attention of their demands by rattling pots.”
It was the murder of GAM activists Hector Gomez on March 30, 1985, and Maria Rosario Godoy de Cuevas on April 3, 1985, that gave rise to the idea of PBI providing physical accompaniment to at-risk defenders.
Luz Leticia
PBI-Guatemala has noted: “Valentina Agustín and Jorge Hernández are the parents of Luz Leticia, who was disappeared on her 25th birthday on November 22, 1982. They have also been part of GAM from the beginning. Mirtala, one of Luz Leticia’s sisters, remembers … ‘my mother cooked food for the meetings’.”
PBI-Guatemala continues to follow the Luz Leticia case: PBI-Guatemala accompanies family of Luz Leticia at court hearing, verdict on her forcible disappearance expected on September 17 (PBI-Canada, September 4, 2026).
The Military Diary Case
No-Ficción has previously reported: “Aura Elena Farfán became involved in the search for the disappeared in March 1984, after the kidnapping of Luz Haydeé Méndez Calderón, her cousin’s partner. …Two months later, on May 15, 1984, Aura Elena’s brother, Rubén Amilcar Farfán, was disappeared… A month later, on June 4, Aura Elena Farfán became one of the founders of the Mutual Support Group [GAM]…”
PBI continues to monitor the court hearings related to the Military Diary Case: PBI-Guatemala continues to accompany the Military Diary court process, next hearing to be held on September 21 (PBI-Canada, September 11, 2026).
To follow the work of the GAM you can go to Instagram, Facebook and X and their website.
Further reading
–The 40th Anniversary of GAM: An Inspiration in the Struggle for Human Rights in Guatemala (PBI-Guatemala article).
–Peace Brigades International remembers with the Mutual Support Group (GAM) the life of Maria del Rosario Godoy Aldana de Cuevas (PBI-Canada, April 4, 2025).
